Advent of the Cenobites
by PlatinumDragon
Summary: Tenchi and Ryoko toy with a strange puzzle box Tenchi found...


Tenchi Muyo: Advent of the Cenobites

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters here. Please don't sue me. Comments can be sent to Platinum_Dragon@usinternet.com

*****

Ryoko wandered down the stairs, yawning, and looking around in boredom. It was the time of day she absolutely hated; the lazy noon hours that always took forever to go by, no matter what she tried. Worse, Ayeka, Sasami, and Mihoshi had gone into town with Nobuyuki to shop, so she was alone in the house. Only Tenchi was home…

Her boredom abruptly evaporated, as she grinned. She was alone with Tenchi; no Ayeka, Sasami, or Mihoshi to get in the way. He grin widened. "Ohhh Tennnchiiiii!" she called, looking about. "Tennnnnnchi!"

"I'm in the living room," came his wary reply. She teleported down into the family room. Tenchi was sitting on the couch, fiddling with something that she couldn't see. She checked her dress to be sure that it was properly revealing, and then walked around the couch, sitting next to him, smiling alluringly. Tenchi didn't seem to notice, his attention fully on the object. She frowned, and then looked at it.

He held a small cube, on each side of which was a different, intricate pattern. It appeared to be solid, but even as she watched, Tenchi touched a spot, and the box clicked, and part of the pattern shifted slightly. He grinned, and then turned it. The most obvious feature of this face was the circle in the center of the cube. "What is that thing, Tenchi?" she asked, curious. He glanced at her a moment, as his thumb probed the surface.

"Oh, this? I found it while I was helping Grandpa clean out his closet. He said it was a puzzle box he'd never quite gotten around to solving," he explained, before frowning. "I know that this circle is supposed to turn, but I haven't quite managed to unlock it just yet…" he told her, turning the cube again, and working on another side. Ryoko grinned.

"Can I help?" she asked. Tenchi shrugged, shifting a little so she could reach it. She grinned, and touched one of the patterns. The box clicked, and suddenly the top half of it slid forward, sparkles forming along the edges and flying away from it. It paused a moment, as they blinked and looked at each other in surprise, and then slid back together. "Try the circle again, Tenchi," she suggested.

Tenchi nodded, and turned it back to that side, and slowly slide his thumb along the circle's edge. It rotated in a half-circle, and then the box suddenly flew out of his hands to land a few feet away. They looked at each other, as a cylinder rose from the cube where the circle had been, and then slid back down into the box. The room suddenly began to darken, and a bell started to toll, deep an ominous. "Tenchi… I don't think that this is good."

"I think you're right, let's get outta here," he suggested, standing. In the time that it took them to complete the motion, they were suddenly no longer in the living room. Chains tipped with barbed hooks hung at varying heights from the ceiling, strips of torn and bloody flesh caught on some; soft metallic clinks filled the room. Three strange pillars hung from more chains, slowly swinging back and forth, and spikes, barbed wire and such jutted out from the pillars. On one, what looked like a human face had been stretched out over the surface in an expression of terror. The whole room had a strange, almost vanilla-like smell that almost managed to cover the thick stench of death and decay. Ryoko seized Tenchi's shoulder, intending to teleport out, and then started as nothing happened.

"I can't teleport!" she exclaimed. Before Tenchi could reply, the far wall split apart, a painfully bright light spilling out from it. Slowly it spread apart, the sound of a horrible wind-storm whistling through it, though not a breeze stirred. Then there was a new, overriding sound; that of slow, deliberate footsteps. After a moment, a form began to take shape.

At first, it seemed human, though completely bald. Then it stepped out of the searing light, and Ryoko's throat tightened. 'Human' was not the word. An intricate grid covered his scalp, and at each intersection of lines, a jeweled pin had been driven through to the skull. Six open spots on his chest revealed his inner organs as they pulsed, the skin held back by the leather clothing that was sewn onto his pasty white skin. 

A second figure came through the door. This one was a woman, and like the first was bald, her clothing sewn to her body. Wires, hooked to her head and shoulders, held open a gash in her throat so that it looked like a biology experiment.

She was followed by a creature that might once have been human. Its ears had been cut off, and its skin had been pulled down and stitched over his eyes. Its nose looked like it had been bludgeoned until it was flat, and all of its skin was a strange, bruised yellow. Wires driven into its skull pulled its lips tautly apart, causing his teeth to click together, producing a chattering sound that quickly started to eat its way into Ryoko's head.

The final creature to come through was missing its ears as well, and it wore a pair of black sunglasses to cover its eyes. He was incredibly fat, every inch of his bulbous body bulging with obesity. One hand stayed to his stomach, fingering a long, jagged wound held open by his sewn on leather clothes, and he constantly licked his lips.

The four arranged themselves around Tenchi and Ryoko, the pin-headed… No, Pinhead before them. Her mind named them by characteristic; Pinhead the one with the pins, the Female, the Chatterer, and Butterball. Pinhead stared at them a long moment, eyes completely empty. No hate, no rage, no... soul. Then, suddenly, he spoke, his voice a deep, evil, echoing sound that seemed used to inspiring terror. Kagato's got nothing on this thing, she thought to herself.

"We can do nothing here." The female looked at Pinhead sharply.

"Nothing?" she asked, her voice a raspy whisper.

"Nothing," repeated Pinhead. "This boy is already in his own personal hell. Not even we can improve upon it."

"Surely there must be something-"

"No. What greater suffering than being claimed by five different women can you think of? We have no work to do here," he said, before turning, and reentering the passage with the same slow, methodical footsteps he'd displayed as he first appeared. The female looked Tenchi up and down, and then smiled darkly.

"Five at once? Your suffering must be indescribable... I envy you," she rasped, before following Pinhead. The other two followed her, and then the wall slid shut. The box clicked, and then suddenly they were back in the living room. Ryoko looked at Tenchi. His eye was twitching.

"Tenchi?" she asked. He slowly looked at her.

"I think I've just been told that not even evil incarnate can think up something worse for me..." he sighed. She blinked.

"Huh?"

"Oh, nothing, Ryoko... Just another day in... paradise," he said, laughing weakly, as he picked up the box, and tossed it into the trash. Ryoko shrugged, dismissing the entire occurrence, and then grinned, remembering that she was still in the house alone with him.

"Say, Tenchi..."

Ayeka walked in the doorway, and looked around, as she headed toward the kitchen. A glint caught her eye as she passed the trash bin, and she looked down to see a strange, brass-inlaid box inside. Curious, and since there was nothing else in it, she reached down and picked it up. "Huh… A puzzle box..."


End file.
